Black families and communities have historically engaged in activism and protest politics to ascertain institutional equity. Black women have remained at the forefront of these efforts—by way of both passion and necessity.

In their study, Black Educational Activism for Community Empowerment, Wilson and Johnson unearth four themes that hold significantly true to the plight of Black activists—including parents, educators, and community members at large. They are as follows:

Black activists across locales have historically worked to counteract the effects of institutional inequity given their critical consciousness about the impact of structural racism and micro-to-macro level oppression. While there are individual differences in tactics and strategies based on the historical period and the “politics of place”, activists share an understanding of how institutional racism affects the realities and life chances of Black youth.

Black activists serve as influential change agents from the grassroots community level to the professional and political institutional level. Some engage in grassroots, public protest activities like those prominent during the US civil rights era—and even today given the current sociopolitical climate—while others pursue quieter, yet still courageous, change-oriented measures implemented within institutions.

Black activists have skillfully navigated complex community-based, institutional, and political terrains as border crossers, and/or boundary spanners. Border crossing encompasses traversing physical and/or conceptual landscapes where one must negotiate notions of socio-cultural difference and varying power dynamics. While sometimes marked by physical barriers and/or institutional boundaries, borders are often powerful ideologically and socially constructed spaces of division. On the other hand, boundary spanning refers to how leaders span professional and communal settings to leverage bureaucratic change and build new and nontraditional partnerships that further school district initiatives. It is further explained by Miller that more socially conscious boundary spanners draw upon contextual knowledge, interpersonal skills, trust, and a sense of connectedness and community loyalty to strengthen communities as well.

Black activists tend to develop and activate distinct types of social capital to yield collective racial and community uplift rather than individual mobility. While social capital is commonly conceived of as the social assets, relationships, and networks used to increase one’s status and socioeconomic advancement, scholars like Stanton-Salazar describe how some institutional agents and authority figures within education intentionally use and expand social capital for the collective empowerment of youth. Moreover, scholars of Black protest theory and Black feminist though emphasize how collective empowerment and uplift goals have historically motivated many Black community members (both professionals and non-professionals) to engage in political resistance.

Despite their ongoing efforts toward justice and equity in education, few Black girl and womxn activists have been recognized for their contributions to not only the African American community but also society in general, save the modicum of recognition that teacher activists like Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell, Septima Clark, Mary McCleod Bethune, and Marva Collins have received for their vastly broadcast, and amazing efforts. Although we do not posit that recognition is necessarily important nor should it be the motivation for working toward social justice, it is important in part for the historical record to address the imbalance in terms of who gets written about as historical actors and agents. Particularly for disenfranchised and/or marginalized populations, it can be inspiring to witness extraordinary work that comes from “ordinary” people. Specifically, for the African American community, recognition and record of participation by a broad spectrum of community members is proof that we all have and have had a role to play in the liberation of Black people.